Posted
by
Unknown Lamer
on Thursday July 24, 2014 @05:35PM
from the keyboards-still-useful dept.

Nate the greatest (2261802) writes Apple thrilled investors earlier this week when they revealed that they had sold 13 million iPads to schools and claimed 85% of the educational tablet market, but that wasn't the whole story. It turns out that Apple has only sold 5 million iPads to schools since February 2013, or an average of less than a million tablets a quarter over 6 quarters. It turns out that instead of buying iPads, schools are buying Chromebooks. Google reported that a million Chromebooks were sold to schools last quarter, well over half of the 1.8 million units sold in the second quarter. With Android tablets getting better, Apple is losing market share in the consumer tablet market, and now it looks Apple is also losing the educational market to Google. Analysts are predicting that 5 million Chromebooks will be sold by the end of the year; how many of those will be sold to schools, do you think?

That's probably a good thing since students shouldn't be static consumers of information and tablets are really subpar for most kinds of content creation. Add in the fact that a Chromebook costs half as much as even an ipad mini and overall the schools are probably making the rational choice.

Content creation? You mean only English essays, right? Can the students even install and use a proper compiler or something like AutoCAD? Photoshop?

A heavily DRM'ed up "laptop" that no one can do anything except be forced to Google cloudservices to even login and a browser is a rational choice now? Not to mention Google Apps and email which helpfully uploads everything to the Google Cloud.

It pulls Palladium to shame since you can't install any apps except those provided by the Google overlords.

This proves that all the Slashdot talk about software freedom is thinly disguised Microsoft hate since everyone here seems to be pumping up heavily locked down iDevices and Chromebooks.

Well that and yes, you can do Photoshop and AutoCAD on Chrombooks, via VDI infrastructure like VMWare View Desktops, like we are. It isn't as nice as $1500 specialized workstations and 22" monitors but it works in a pinch (and at home). So, you have VDI for remote work, a Lab full or real Computers for classwork, and not spend a shit ton of money on laptops that are used 85% of the time as IM and Typing stations.

>This proves that all the Slashdot talk about software freedom is thinly disguised>Microsoft hate since everyone here seems to be pumping up heavily locked down>iDevices and Chromebooks.

Many people - especially Slashdot readers - don't use Microsoft products unless, perhaps, they'd paid to use it at work (either as end users or developers). They're just not relevant to a discussion about tablets (they don't make any that have any impact on the market) or Chromebooks (which are usable in seconds,

If only tablets had on-screen keyboards or supported Bluetooth keyboards or keyboard docks! Those poor students with tablets! They're unable to do anything but watch Netflix!

This sort of commentary just sounds stupid. Even if you want to make a point that tablets don't have good native input solutions don't go full hyperbole. All you're doing is reducing the impact of the point you're trying to make.

In the real non-hyperbolic world tablets are perfectly capable of being typed upon. I would even suggest tabl

A decent bluetooth keyboard costs a lot of money. Keyboard dock? Why not just buy a laptop?

> All you're doing is reducing the impact of the point you're trying to make.

But i'm right though. That's what this story is about. Using a laptop, not a tablet, when you want to do something other than consume. How many people use laptops to write books, code etc. And how many use tablets. Thank you.

> If only tablets had on-screen keyboards or supported Bluetooth keyboards or keyboard docks!

In other words, spend extra money to turn your tablet into some kind of laptop wannabe. You're trying to make the tablet something it's not in order to make up for it's inherent flaws when the simple and obvious thing is to buy the thing that already meets your requirements.

Content creation? You mean only English essays, right? Can the students even install and use a proper compiler or something like AutoCAD? Photoshop?

Well you can develop webapps, there's IDEs like Codenvy and there is a version of AutoCAD 360 for Chromebooks.

A heavily DRM'ed up "laptop" that no one can do anything except be forced to Google cloudservices to even login and a browser is a rational choice now?

It isn't particularly "DRMed", there's nothing to stop you dual booting a full Linux distro if you want. But really if you're talking AutoCAD and Photoshop then obviously you're suggesting Windows or OS X are the necessity.

Not to mention Google Apps and email which helpfully uploads everything to the Google Cloud.

Well that makes it accessible from anywhere and prevents data loss from hardware failure so i'd say that's pretty damn helpful in the education environment. Though having the option to upload to DropBox or OneDrive or some other alternative would be useful.

This proves that all the Slashdot talk about software freedom is thinly disguised Microsoft hate since everyone here seems to be pumping up heavily locked down iDevices and Chromebooks.

Or maybe they are finally realizing that not everybody needs/wants a fully open, infinitely configurable, high maintenance product all the time. Sometimes they just want it to do a limited subset and do it well with minimal requirement from the user. That isn't to say you couldn't dual boot and have full desktop Linux on there as well.

The whole free and open thing seems to be stagnating a bit, I mean Android is free and open but where is all the FOSS innovation? Sure there are some helpful utilities for devs and admins but that's about it. There's no reason a FOSS package or distro couldn't have been developed that provided all the innovative features that exist in Google Play Services but it didn't. It's nice for everything to be FOSS but from the consumer perspective it doesn't seem to have much advantage over proprietary.

Can the students even install and use a proper compiler or something like AutoCAD? Photoshop?

How many school kids have a daily need for AutoCAD or Photoshop? I'd imagine only a tiny percentage. So why should a school district equip elementary and middle school kids with a computer powerful enough for tasks that only a small minority of their high-school students need? Would it not be better to give something more powerful (and much more expensive) to just those with the specialist need for something more powerful?

As for a compiler, they could use something like Cloud 9 [c9.io] for cloud based developing.

Chromebook is perfect for the sort of people who don't understand the difference between a computer and the internet. The lack of ability to install anything you want (aka malware) with just a click is in this case a bonus.

How many schools can afford licences for AutioCAD and Photoshop? They each cost several times as much as the laptop. There are plenty of productivity apps for ChromeOS, and of course Google Apps for office stuff.

They can probably get really good deals on student versions of those products. AutoDesk, certainly, would like as many young people to grow up using their software as possible, so when they're out in industry as adults they can tell their boss to buy big-boy AutoCAD.

It isn't exactly trivial, you have to essentially unlock it and then click through an annoying prompt on every single boot. Even a PC with Secure Boot has better support for Linux than that.

>but for general purpose devices, Chromebooks can be great, especially when they are being compared to an iPad

How are they better than an iPad with a proper hardware keyboard? And it's a bastardization of the term 'general purpose' when it's locked down to run only Google's native's app and everything has to be done i

On any PC I can set Linux to be the default boot. On Chromebooks you have to type through an annoying prompt every single time you boot a kernel that's not signed by Google and the message says that OS verification is off, implying that using your own Linux install is less secure. Even the much hated UEFI Secure Boot doesn't do this.

On any PC I can set Linux to be the default boot. On Chromebooks you have to type through an annoying prompt every single time you boot a kernel that's not signed by Google and the message says that OS verification is off, implying that using your own Linux install is less secure. Even the much hated UEFI Secure Boot doesn't do this.

Yes, you have to turn off OS verification. That's sort of sensible, since your choosing between two different systems.

As for your annoying prompt - I don't see it. I just hit control L - or Control D. Then whichever OS I choose is about 7 seconds away.

If you actually have ever used Linux on a Chromebook, and you're encountering more than one keypress (aside from login) you're not doing it right.

They used to track apps for education users, lied that they didn't track, got caught in federal court where they didn't have the cajones to tell the same lies to the judge that they were telling the public and only recently now say that they stopped.

I installed crouton and it totally sucks!1) you have to run in developer mode which means one accidental miss boot or wake up and you entire hard disk is erased.2) you get no live updates from google for the chrome portion3) crouton linux has all sorts of network adapter problems, like seeing it at all, on my machine.4) the archiving system for saving your current state for a reinistall after you accidentally press the space bar when it tells you to at boot (and reformats the hard drive) is byzantine and on

It's hardly surprising that schools would prefer laptops with keyboards, since students are expected to do a lot of writing. Chromebooks make sense because they are cheap, virus-proof and don't run Windows games.

Chromebooks don't support Java, or Silverlight for that matter, in the browser. There are of course web games, but the school will have their internet connection censored to block those out anyway. The students can't install much on those machines, and in fact I think they can be locked down so that no apps can be installed at all.

I don't think it has anything to do with being "remotely managed" but rather the simple fact that a tablet and a laptop are still two different tools.

I think people are starting to understand that using a tablet isn't just "using a computer with a touch screen." It's an entirely different experience, one that is probably better suited for certain tasks that rely on organic movement. Gaming happens to be one of those tasks but certainly not the only. Music and art are others.

A chromebook is a cheap and crippled laptop, basically, but it beats the heck out of any tablet for typing which pretty much anyone would agree, at least as of now.

So I guess if you're seeing a controversy between people clamoring for one item over the other, a reasonable conclusion to draw would be that one person thinks one type of education is better than another.

Well said. Also the different forms of education are better at different ages. The typing advantage only kicks in once students are writing long essays. At Kindergarten, the educational activities possible with a touch screen tablet are much more rich. Between the two, there's a changing dynamic of advantages.

Chrome devices have Flash support built-in, but they do not support Java or Silverlight. If you need Java, Silverlight, or other plug-in support, there are virtualization and remoting options you can use for Chrome devices

Why wouldn't a person want that? It's effectively the same thing as an ordinary PC, only with a declarative language for UIs, a dynamic, high performance language as the go-to systems language, the ability to run legacy code or code from whatever environment you use in the more static PNaCl environment, and a lot of rather neat things, all that with strengthened inter-app security, if I understood it all correctly. The one fundamental limitation is that you can't run the topmost high-end applications such a

Analysts are predicting that 5 million Chromebooks will be sold by the end of the year; how many of those will be sold to schools, do you think?

As a parent in a school district, I'm pissed that our school district is buying every student a Chomebook*.

I would be even angrier if they had gone with the iPad.

These programs are a bloody sham--they're a waste of money and will not help the education of our next generation one bit. There is nothing that providing a laptop per child affords that can't be accomplished through classroom media presentation devices (computer & projector) and a good school computer lab. These devices will only be a distract

When I was at school I wasted vast amounts of time being forced to write stuff out in draft form and then re-write it neatly. Fortunately now we have computers that allow editing. This is progress - I can write a report and edit it without endless copying out by hand.

Kids should have access to computers. Not all families can afford them. By giving all the students the same computers it is easier for the teacher to teach without getting bogged down in technical differences, and allows the school to administer and manage them.

When I was at school I wasted vast amounts of time being forced to write stuff out in draft form and then re-write it neatly.

They don't ask you to re-write stuff to annoy you, they force you to re-write to make sure you double-check your work. Or, in the case of lessons, to help you memorize it.I'm all for teaching kids how to use a computer but it doesn't mean that they should be used all the time. For writing reports, sure, it improves efficiency, but whether it is better for learning is debatable.

Kids should have access to computers. Not all families can afford them. By giving all the students the same computers it is easier for the teacher to teach without getting bogged down in technical differences, and allows the school to administer and manage them.

I actually agree with you, which is why I said, "I would be in favor of a program that provides these devices to low income families."

Writing a 5 paragraph essay for an exam is no burden by hand, but I agree that handwriting large English assignments would be a bear. But with a computer lab and a computer at home, nobody would be forced to write by hand.

Writing by hand remains an essential skill, and will continue to be an essential skill for the foreseeable future. It is true that it is no longer the domain of people who author reports or books, corresponding with friends and businesses, and many other areas. Yet it is still used extensively for note taking, completing forms, and in many situations where it is easier to use the pen than the keyboard (diagrams, equations, etc.).

In time, that may change. In time, it will probably change. Yet I am getting quite tired of reading the handwriting of adults that wouldn't pass the muster of a grade 3 teacher.

A few months back, I sprained and fractured the thumb on my writing hand. It was almost a week before by thumb was strong enough to even allow me to grip an empty soda can without dropping it, so you can imagine it took awhile before I could write again (nearly two months before I could write more than a few lines, in fact). I also work at a software development shop where a key part of our culture is our use of notebooks. To say the least, I was a bit concerned, since writing seemed like an essential skill.

Because writing by hand was out for me, I turned to taking notes on my iPhone, simply out of necessity. I write by hand at around 30 wpm, I'd guess, which I was able to get on par with almost immediately, without any of the annoying hand cramping that happens after awhile when writing on paper. Plus, the notes are much more legible (even with the occasional auto-correct mishap), have the ability to be searched more easily later, can be synced to other locations, and are "written" using an object I'm keeping with me all of the time anyway. I'm actually seriously considering ditching notebooks altogether at this point, now that my thumb is mostly healed, since I can type just as fast, and if someone throws up a picture on a whiteboard, I can snap a photo more easily than I can copy it to paper anyway.

Which is to say, I'm not convinced that writing by hand remains an essential skill, or else that it will be one for much longer. Useful in numerous situations? Absolutely. Something I'd teach my kids? Without a doubt. But essential? Other than legal and old-world business forms that haven't moved online yet, I can't remember the last time that I had to write by hand, and those are both a dying breed.

Personal note: Just to put it out there, I'm not someone with years of experience as a prolific typist on phones. I'm averse to text messaging and get frustrated when trying to type out e-mails since I'm still, of course, much faster on a full keyboard.

I have arthritis but it wasn't diagnosed until well after I left school. My teachers used to complain that I didn't write enough, or that after a few lines my handwriting was hard to read. Now I know why. Writing by hand just put me off writing stuff completely, which is a shame because I enjoy it now I can type instead.

The thing these programs [try] to bring isn't so much help with learning as much as EQUAL ACCESS to learning. It attempts to level the playing field between the kids at home with no pc for research and the more well-off kids with greater tech access.

That said, it doesn't provide in home internet access, satellite or 3g coverage, so many times it seems like a wasted effort, but it allows students greater flexibility than previous generations. They aren't tied down to a classroom, or getting shuffled out of the lab so a new class can come in. They can do their work anywhere there's free wifi. Further, it adds a value to your district in less tangible ways: showing kids you trust them with not-inexpensive hardware does interesting things to their psyche.

That said, it doesn't provide in home internet access, satellite or 3g coverage...

Citation needed. I am aware that some Chromebooks come without data, but I actually read the article and I don't see anywhere where they differentiate between Chromebooks with mobile data (and wifi) and Chromebooks without data (but only wifi).

My first Chromebook came with 2 years of free 3G Verizon service at 100MB per month (if you want to buy more than the free level of service, you can prepay for more, but there is no danger of getting charged when you go over that amount, once above that quota and if y

The thing these programs [try] to bring isn't so much help with learning as much as EQUAL ACCESS to learning. It attempts to level the playing field between the kids at home with no pc for research and the more well-off kids with greater tech access.

That is not a point of benefit our district has ever tried to make, but I see the benefit of that. That's why I said, "I would be in favor of a program that provides these devices to low income families."

"At-Risk Schools" is bullshit misnomer. These schools get ALL sorts of extra money other schools don't. Let me tell you, money is not the issue, the issue with "At-RisK" is the parents of the kids who are "At-Risk". These people are lower educated because many (most?) do not value education. They are lower Economic, because they are lower educated. And because they are lower economic, they don't see a way (even if you tell them) out of their situation. I am not going to say they are lazy, because many of th

There is nothing that providing a laptop per child affords that can't be accomplished through classroom media presentation devices (computer & projector) and a good school computer lab.

Homework. Many poorer kids do not have a computer at home, and a smartphone is terrible for writing papers and research. The laptop/tablet is also locked down so distractions are kept to a minimum.

These devices will only be a distraction and huge expense for families and schools as millions of them are broken every year.

Hyperbole. Citation needed. Yesterday's article about iPads in Coachella said district-wide there were less than 10 lost or stolen. How does that scale up to millions?

I'm replying to comments now, and it's amazing how person after person has responded with, "but what about the poor kids?!?!" Apparently everybody has terrible reading comprehension, for I said, "I would be in favor of a program that provides these devices to low income families."

I read the iPad story on Slashdot. That is an amazing story, and it made headlines because it's [going to be] an outlier. Have you ever purchased a new piece of equipment? You baby that thing at first, then as the familiarity grows

This provides interactive access to the students up to 24 hours every day. The teacher gives feedback and the student receives it immediately, regardless of whether or not they are in class at the time. With Hangouts a "sick" student can be in class, and participate without having to infect classmates with Virus of the year. And so on.

I foresee the time when we dump Industrial Education and start providing kids all the education they can handle at any age and quit trying to pigeon hole them into "age" segregated classes, and start putting them into online sessions with educational peers

That's interesting, but I don't see what you rant has to do with school districts providing laptops. If the incumbents keep promoting programs like OLPC through the schools, then I can assure you that the world will actually be moving away from your vision of reformed education.

And at $200 ea. Chromebooks offer even the lowest income people a chance to own technology that can help bridge the education gap. $200 buys one, maybe two textbooks these days, something school districts have to do every year or two. Are they as capable as a Laptop? Probably not, but they are usable for 85% of what kids need in school.

Wow, I am amazed at how many people seem to lack basic reading comprehension. I explicitly had said, "I would be in favor of a program that provides these devices to low income families." I am in favor of equal access for all and hug

There is nothing that providing a laptop per child affords that can't be accomplished through classroom media presentation devices (computer & projector) and a good school computer lab.

I would guess it depends on the implementation of the program. Giving kids laptops and then doing everything else the same old way doesn't really help. However, it opens up the possibility of having lessons that include multimedia, interactive lessons, and lessons in logic/programming. If you have some kind of open-source textbooks available on the computers, then you might be saving money over buying textbooks. The kids can' use the computers to write their papers, which is potentially more convenient

Thank you for offering a very sensible reply. I agree that the right implementation would make a difference, and I suppose part of my being upset is not trusting our school district to do it right--they certainly have not offered any indication that they will do anything novel with these laptops. They just came in to a little extra money and it's burning a hole in their pocket.

I hope they offset the cost by putting open source textbooks on them, but I'm skeptical. School districts (including mine) seem to b

I'm not particularly happy with the state of education, and I might agree that it'd be more effective to spend extra money on having more/better teachers rather than more computing equipment. I would just argue-- and you don't seem averse to this-- that providing each student with a computer *could* be a helpful educational tool. I think the problem that we run into tends to be that we want computers to be a replacement for good teachers and high-quality educational materials rather than a supplement.

The plaintiffs allege that Google has employed such practices since around 2010, when it began using a new technology, known as Content Onebox, that allows the company to intercept and scan emails before they reach their intended recipients, rather than after messages are delivered to users’ inboxes, regardless of whether ads are turned off.Mr. Fread and Mr. Carrillo say that neither they nor any other users of Google Apps for Education consented to such practices. They are seeking financial damages amounting to $100 per day of each day of violation for every individual who sent or received an email message using Google Apps for Education during a two-year period beginning in May 2011.While the allegations by the plaintiffs are explosive, it’s the sworn declarations of Google representatives in response to their claims that have truly raised the eyebrows of observers and privacy experts.Contrary to the company’s earlier public statements, Google representatives acknowledged in a September motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ request for class certification that the company’s consumer-privacy policy applies to Apps for Education users. Thus, Google argues, it has students’ (and other Apps for Education users’) consent to scan and process their emails.In November, Kyle C. Wong, a lawyer representing Google, also argued in a formal declaration submitted to the court in opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification that the company’s data-mining practices are widely known, and that the plaintiffs’ complaints that the scanning and processing of their emails was done secretly are thus invalid. Mr. Wong cited extensive media coverage about Google’s data mining of Gmail consumer users’ messages, as well as the disclosures made by numerous universities to their students about how Google Apps for Education functions.

The only people up in arms seem to be the slashdot editors, it seems to me. I've started to be like "Oh God, not another NSA article!" I got it, the NSA is doing surveillance, how many times a day do I need to be reminded?

Although this information is interesting, unless someone does a survey or purchase poll it is difficult to infer why chrome is doing as well as it is. Since iPads are more expensive on average it would be difficult to control for price selection to determine any other user preference bias.

USRobotics kept walking around and saying their modems were the #1 selling modem. This is analogous of what Apple is doing today.

However, while USR was the #1 brand, most modems sold overall had the Rockwell chipset, with most brands simply adding a plastic box and different color LEDs.

More recently, Apple claims that the iPhone is the #1 selling phone. However, phones that use Android sell the most, period.

I shouldn't be, but I'm always surprised how religious people get when their favorite electronics company is shown to be extremely misleading. I know a guy that I'd known for years who threatened to "unfriend" simply because I refuted his claim that the iPhone was the #1 phone.

So this iPad/Chromebook issue is just another chapter of misleading sales tactics. But if you look at what Apple actually says officially, they're very specific in the literature. Unfortunately, people will be blind to anything that might change their worldview... and any company would be nuts not to take advantage of that.

I shouldn't be, but I'm always surprised how religious people get when their favorite electronics company is shown to be extremely misleading. I know a guy that I'd known for years who threatened to "unfriend" simply because I refuted his claim that the iPhone was the #1 phone.

So this iPad/Chromebook issue is just another chapter of misleading sales tactics. But if you look at what Apple actually says officially, they're very specific in the literature. Unfortunately, people will be blind to anything that might change their worldview... and any company would be nuts not to take advantage of that.

It's strange. It like tribalism in a globally connected world. Product brands and companies are one of the few things that touch most places on Earth so they have been able to build this strange support from people. If people got so passionate about things that really mattered, instead of consumer electronics, just imagine what they could do.

Samsung Galaxy S models may occasionally beat the iPhone in worldwide sales, even though globally, the iPhones are the best selling smartphone models.... but if you count all cell phones, low-end Nokias are well ahead. The Nokia 1110 is the best selling phone of all times, with more than 200 million units sold.

I can not imagine homework is very practical without keyboard or trackpad. Chromebooks are also easy to pass along to next kid or share without privacy issues, and if they break down, like things in kids' hands often do, replacement is exceptionally cheap. Tablets for web browsing, visual tasks like photo editing, and casual games, laptops for heavy duty typing and bigger screen/multi application workflows.

There is a simple reason for this - economics. Early adopters went with iPads as they were really the only choice at the time. Now that the rest of the schools are going to jump on the bandwagon there are other choices and price comes into play. You can buy twice as many chromebooks as you can iPads for the same money.

Of course, that is assuming that their is educational software on the chromebooks that fit the students needs.

Well, I spoke to a parent recently about this. Apparently they do often write papers on a keyboardless tablet. The astonishing part was that the kid's tablet broke and her solution was to write the paper on her phone.

Double kudos for writing it on touch screen devices. I do some Play-by-email roleplaying and at times I do posts on my Nexus 7, and man oh man it's difficult. I wouldn't even dream of doing long prose writing on a tablet.

I think the $99 netbooks that are gonna be coming out this fall should just suck up these low end sales like a sponge. After all the new Atom and Jaguar chips are crazy powerful and at 8 inches it'll be just perfect for kids sticking into backpacks. i already have a dozen customers that have put off getting their kids a tablet to get one of these new netbooks and I have a feeling that without having the lowest cost these ChromeOS sales are gonna dry up, same goes for the low end tablets.

Chromebooks work fine offline too. You do have to change a setting in Google Docs to enable offline use, and perhaps Gmail also suffers from this flaw, but it is trivially possible. It is not the default, which is frankly bizarre, but I bought mine to be a backup web development machine, so it's running debian in a chroot.

I'd love a $99 netbook. My current one is getting up in years, but it's great for tossing into a messenger bag; it fits the ultra-mobile lifestyle very well. $99 is cheap enough to be disp

Windows 8.1, they are gonna be one of the first laptops to take advantage of the "Free Windows under 10 inches" rule MSFT recently enacted, which means it should be trivial to "downgrade" to Win 7 if you want. I think I read about them on Windows Insider but in any case they are due either late Sept or early Oct but I would put my money on early Sept if possible to grab the back to school sales.

Google's been making some noise about improving the offline capabilities of ChromeOS, and letting approved Android apps into the ChromeOS store. If these things happen in a reasonably quick period, then that's a pocket Linux lappy I would use.

I hate to break it to you but web apps kickstarted the neo-mainframe movement because everyone having their own PC turned into an admin nightmare. Apple and Google have given the same thing to people who don't want to fight with their computer all the time.

The last quarter was the second quarter. This doesn't show any sort of change in sales. It shows that out of 1.8 million units sold in the 2nd quarter, 1 million, or well over half of them, were to schools.

All they can do in addition to Facebook and other web browsing is browse the intranet (which nobody really does anyway) and check email. They already get emails on their Blackberry's and use them more often.

That's interesting as we are actually having the opposite to your experience in the school I work at.

The teachers (mostly) think they are great

Before students had these devices they had pen and paper. Now they have a device that does word processing, spreadsheets, basic multimedia, communication (email, video chat etc), has access to a wealth of information through the internet for research, access to our online learning environment and more. A lot of activities that are great for education across every subject and that they couldn't do prior with pen and paper. And it does all these activities rather well and because it is low powered it easily lasts a whole day without recharging (with the model we have). This last point is really important as it alleviates the problem of a mess of cables for people to trip over etc but it also allows people to move around a lot easier than when they are tethered which is good for collaboration exercises.

Of course it doesn't do cad and multimedia and all that other fancy stuff. That is what our labs are for and in our opinion a desktop with a 20 something inch screen and a mouse and that is plugged into power permanently is much better for doing those tasks than even a high end laptop.

Actually you can do cad and multimedia and a lot of that other stuff on these devices. There are web based options for many of these things. Sure they aren't as powerful but for teaching the theory and concepts you shouldn't need the full blown tools (unless you are a poor teacher who doesn't understand the theory and concepts well enough and can only teach a product which you yourselves were taught on.) For instance we teach students cad with Tinkercad.com and they easily transfer those skills over to AutoCad in later years.

From a management point of view they are awesome. Way fewer breakdowns than with traditional laptops and when they do, a lot of the time a Power Wash and the student is back up and running in a matter of minutes. If it's hardware we loan them another device, they log in and are off and running again in a few minutes, and again when they get their repaired device (or a replacement) back.

I really hate this argument that a device that is easy to manage and offers many things they didn't have before (with just pen and paper) which are of value and which this device does really well, and is actually quite well priced, is useless because it doesn't do some other things which are specialised and for which we already have better devices doing those tasks anyways.

I am glad your high school has money for a Photoshop license for each student and an IT stuff to fix and remove malware from all their Windows laptops. For most, it will be more realistic to have a lab with Photoshop and in the meantime focus on students being able to do some web research and type up a paper.